


Wake Up Call

by apostapal



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Dreams and Nightmares, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, M/M, Post-Fall of Overwatch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-01-12
Packaged: 2019-03-03 21:28:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13349874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apostapal/pseuds/apostapal
Summary: Gabriel wakes from a nightmare.





	Wake Up Call

**Author's Note:**

> A late SS gift for purplenerd777 over on Tumblr!

It was nearly 0200 when it happened. The whole place was quiet, calm, asleep, and then—chaos.

Gabriel woke up gasping for air like a drowning man. He kicked at the blankets, wrenched himself out of Jack’s grasp the second he sat up, and managed to propel himself to the foot of the bed in his panic. When Jack finally got to his senses and sat up to see him, he found the other man curled in on himself with his knees uncomfortably jammed under his chin. (Passively, Jack considered how unpleasant the sensation of the pose must be with a bad knee and a sore back.) He flinched when Jack’s fingers reached out and tentatively grazed his shoulder but otherwise seemed to have stilled as suddenly as he’d started moving.

“Bad dream?” he asked, voice low. Gabriel nodded. “Come here.” This time, he shook his head almost violently. Jack cleared the sleepy gravel from his throat.

“I hurt you…”

The words were almost so quiet Jack missed them. He edged closer, running his palm flat over Gabriel’s back. There was another movement Jack could have mistaken for a flinch if it weren’t for the choked noise that followed.

“I hurt you,” Gabriel repeated, not looking when Jack slid down to sit at the end of the bed with him. “Why do I dream about that? I would never hurt you like that.”

There’s a lingering fear in Gabriel; one that often would make him question what was really done to his body—and if it extended to his mind like it did Widowmaker. A wonder if he wasn’t just some sleeper agent waiting for the right trigger word to kill everyone he had left to love in their sleep. The worst part of it, really, was that they didn’t even know how to tell whether or not it was an unjustified concern. Dreams like this just made it worse. Made Gabriel wonder if they were really dreams at all. And made him worry if they were sending him some kind of message he eventually wouldn’t be able to ignore.

His back shook under Jack’s hand and the weight got too heavy. Gabriel twisted and shoved his face against Jack’s shoulder, fingers balling up handfuls of his shirt, and Jack simply let himself fall back against the mattress in the process. Gabriel went with him, shifting until he found a comfortable position, and they waited out the worst of it. Neither of them cried much for this anymore—these moments, hard as they were, were simply a part of life now. But Jack felt Gabriel’s breathing shudder and moved to squeeze comfortingly at the back of his neck.

“Breathe right, Gabe,” he whispered. Gabriel nodded against his shoulder. “Can you remember how?” A shake of his head. “Need me to show you?” Another nod.

They rolled onto their sides, Gabriel’s jaw clenched as he forced himself to breathe through his nose. Jack pressed their foreheads together and showed Gabriel the same process both of them had been through more times than they could count. In through the nose, hold, out through the mouth. Repeat. Jack ran his hand along Gabriel’s jawline until he could get the near teeth-grinding pressure the other man was applying to let up. When he finally seemed relaxed, breathing evenly, Jack shifted and tucked Gabriel’s head under his chin. He just listened to their breathing, eyelids heavy again, and kneaded at the short hair on the back of Gabriel’s head.

“You know what I was dreaming about?” he asked, half awake. Gabriel made a noise close to ‘What?’ but… just barely. “Indiana.”

Gabriel had a little slur from sleep in his voice when he replied with, “I’m sorry.”

Jack laughed under his breath. “Yep,” he said, “Indiana. I think I was young but… you were there. Or, at least I think it was you. Been a long time since I saw your baby pictures.” Gabriel laughed. “We were in the fields and I kept trying to find you but you were just… barely out of reach. The whole time. I had something I wanted to tell you. Or do… I don’t know.”

“What happened?” Gabriel asked.

“When I caught up to you, you vanished,” Jack said, “and I was alone in the fields. With the sky so impossibly dark it scared me. And then you woke me up.”

Gabriel shifted in his arms. “Sounds awful,” he said.

Jack shrugged. “I have you now,” he said simply, “I’m doing alright.” A pause, then, “Do you want to talk about your dream?”

“No…” Jack felt Gabriel wind an arm around his waist and squeeze, almost uncomfortably tight. “No, I don’t,” he said.

“Alright,” Jack replied. Then, “Did I ever tell you about the dream I had where I was stuck in a crockpot?”

Gabriel barked out a surprised laugh. “No,” he said, “you haven’t.”

Jack smiled to himself. “It was back when I was still Strike-Commander. Had some, uh, weird stress dreams,” he explained, “there’s really not much more to it than that. Woke up just before I drowned in hot gravy. I think you were there and when you woke up you asked what happened and I just told you I thought something bit me—since we had the window open. And you just… never questioned it.”

He had Gabriel laughing then, shoulders shaking a little with soft chuckles. Jack felt him stretch a little, then tuck in closer to his chest. His laughter died down and he ran his hand over the small of Jack’s back.

“Sorry I kept you up,” he said finally.

Jack replied with a soft ‘pfft’ noise. “Not a problem, angel,” he said, “you do the same for me. And my weird dreams about corn and crockpots.”

Gabriel laughed again but this time it was slower, and punctuated with a soft yawn. Jack shifted and tugged at him until he could drag them both back up to their pillows. Barely got a blanket wrapped around Gabriel before he was out again, face still pressed to Jack’s shirt. Jack laid there a bit, watching him in the low light and wondering what his own dream meant. He hadn’t been worried until the very end, just before he woke up. It was… strange. But ah well.

He had Gabriel now, right there. No need to dwell on strange dreams he’d likely never know the reason behind. Jack drifted off with the final hope that both of them would just forego dreams for the rest of the night. Maybe they’d get lucky.


End file.
